Georgia Football vs Vanderbilt Seven Key Observations
Offensive Line Dominated the Line of Scrimmage
The Georgia football team dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The offensive line was dominant and wore the Commodores down despite dealing with injuries. (more on the injuries later)
The Dawgs o-line paved the way for UGA to run the ball 34 times for 219 yards. That’s an astounding 6.4 yards per carry. The massive UGA line wears opponents down as the game goes along.
In addition to the big day on the ground, the offensive line kept Jake Fromm mostly clean, allowing only one sack.
Defensive Adjustments
The Georgia football team’s defensive line has played well. The only issue they have had is allowing too many rushing yards up the middle on double high safety formations. That trend held somewhat true early in the game against Vandy.
Vanderbilt’s best run came on an outside read option to running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn. However he was able to average 4.5 yards per carry on his other runs, some of which went up the middle.
To slow down the running between the tackles, Kirby Smart and Mel Tucker made an adjustment. Smart inserted 6’6 320 nose tackle Jordan Davis into the middle of the Dawgs defense. That’s 20 more pounds of power added to the front seven. Jordan got his shot due to Devonte Wyatt suffering a leg injury in practice.
Smart also played nose tackle Jay Hayes at defensive end opposite of Tyler Clark, on obvious running downs. Replacing defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter with Jay Hayes adds an additional 20 pounds to the Georgia Football defensive front.
The adjustment by Smart to give the Dawgs an additional 40 pounds of power up front, certainly helped the run game at the point of attack. Davis was in the game on a critical fourth and one stop.
Vanderbilt running backs not named Ke’Shawn Vaughn, accounted for just 63 yards on 19 carries. That’s only 3.3 yards per rush.
It will be worth watching to see if Coach Smart uses the heavier front against LSU. It would even be a good idea to use starting nose tackle Julian Rochester at defensive end with Jordan Davis manning the middle.